The 2009-2010 season of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center presents the world premiere of the revival of Merce Cunningham's Roaratorio as part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's Legacy Tour, a final two-year celebration of Cunningham's lifetime of artistic achievement. At Walt Disney Concert Hall for three performances only on June 4, 5, and 6, this engagement will be the final opportunity for the people of Los Angeles to see Cunningham's work performed by the dancers he personally trained.
Roaratorio is one of the most ambitious and large-scale Cunningham-Cage collaborations. The work features an original recording of John Cage's complex 1979 composition Roaratorio, an Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake.This revival of Roaratorio is a co-commission of the Music Center of Los Angeles County, Festival Montpellier Danse 2010, and Théâtre de la Ville/Festival d'Automne à Paris. The revival and preservation of Roaratorio are made possible in part through the generous support of American Express.
Tickets for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company are available through Ticketmaster Phone Charge at (800) 982-2787, at all Ticketmaster Outlets and online at http://www.ticketmaster.com, and at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Box Office. For groups of 15 or more, call CTG Group Sales at (213) 972-7231. Artists and Program are subject to change. For more information, please visit www.musiccenter.org <http://www.musiccenter.org> and http://www.merce.org.Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) has had a profound impact on American art and the avant-garde since it's founding in 1953. Guided by Merce Cunningham's radical approach to space, time, and technology, the Company has forged a distinctive style, reflecting Cunningham's technique and illuminating the near limitless possibility for human movement. For more than fifty years, MCDC's collaborations with groundbreaking artists from all disciplines have redefined the way audiences experience the visual and performing arts.
MCDC was formed at Black Mountain College, and included dancers Carolyn Brown, Viola Farber, Paul Taylor, and Remy Charlip, and musicians John Cage and David Tudor. In its early years, the Company famously toured in a Volkswagen bus driven by John Cage with just enough room for six dancers, the two musicians, and a stage manager, who was often Robert Rauschenberg. MCDC's first international tour in 1964-which included performances in Western and Eastern Europe, India, Thailand, and Japan-marked a turning point for the Company and solidified a constant stream of national and international bookings. In the years since, MCDC has inspired artists and audiences with innovative performances, serving as an ambassador for contemporary American culture around the world. In addition to its influence in the world of dance, MCDC has cultivated a body of new music, commissioning more work from contemporary composers than any other dance company. Its repertory includes works by musicians ranging from John Cage and Lou Harrison to Gavin Bryars and Radiohead. Cage's association with the Company as Musical Advisor since its inception continued until his death in 1992, when he was succeeded by David Tudor. Since 1995, MCDC has been under the music direction of Takehisa Kosugi. The Company has also collaborated with an array of visual artists and designers. Robert Rauschenberg, whose famous "Combines" reflect the approach he used to create décor for a number of MCDC's early works, served as the Company's resident designer from 1954 through 1964. Jasper Johns followed as Artistic Advisor from 1967 until 1980, and Mark Lancaster from 1980 through 1984. The last Advisors to be appointed were William Anastasi and Dove Bradshaw in 1984. Other artists who have collaborated with MCDC include Tacita Dean, Rei Kawakubo, Roy Lichtenstein, Bruce Nauman, Ernesto Neto, Frank Stella, Benedetta Tagliabue, and Andy Warhol. MCDC has been featured extensively in film and video choreographed by Cunningham, first with Charles Atlas and later in collaboration with Elliot Caplan, among others. With support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Atlas continues to collaborate with MCDC, filming Views on Camera and Views on Video in 2004/2005 and, this past fall, filming the Company perform Cunningham's epic work Ocean (1994) in Minnesota's Rainbow Quarry, 100 feet below the surface of the earth, accompanied by the 150-member St. Cloud Orchestra. Split Sides, which premiered on the 50th anniversary of the Company at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music (BAM) in 2003, was just released on DVD by ARTPIX, and was the work performed when the company appeared in the Dance at the Music Center series in 2005.In 2007, MCDC began a two-year residency with Dia:Beacon, performing Events, Cunningham's site-specific choreographic collages, in the galleries of Richard Serra, Dan Flavin, and Sol LeWitt among others. Also in 2007, MCDC premiered XOVER, Cunningham's final collaboration with Rauschenberg, at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Cunningham's final work, Nearly Ninety, premiered at BAM on April 16, 2009 - the actual date of his 90th birthday - and has since been performed around the world along with an alternate version, "Nearly 902." Cunningham died on July 26, 2009. The Legacy Tour is a celebration of Cunningham's lifetime of artistic achievement and a testament to the choreographer's enduring genius. Launched in February 2010, the two-year tour showcases 18 seminal works from throughout Cunningham's career-including the revival of Roaratorio and six other dances from past Company repertory-highlighting the collaborations with artistic innovators such as John Cage, Jasper Johns, Radiohead, and Robert Rauschenberg that characterized Cunningham's creative life.Currently encompassing some 40 cities, the Legacy Tour will bring the Merce Cunningham Dance Company to new destinations around the world and includes performances at venues throughout Europe and the United States that have been pivotal in showcasing the Company for the past 50 years.Following the closure of MCDC after The Legacy Tour concludes, the Cunningham Dance Foundation will also close, and its assets will be transferred to the Merce Cunningham Trust, a separate nonprofit organization established by Cunningham in 2000 to hold the rights to his work and manage his artistic legacy in perpetuity. The activities and the work of the Trust will be defined and overseen by its trustees-Laura Kuhn, Patricia Lent, Allan Sperling, and Robert Swinston-who were appointed by Cunningham prior to his death.
About Merce Cunningham
Merce Cunningham was a leader of the American avant-garde throughout his seventy-year career and is considered one of the most important choreographers of our time. Through much of his life, he was also one of the greatest American dancers. With an artistic career distinguished by constant innovation, Cunningham expanded the frontiers not only of dance, but also of contemporary visual and performing arts. His collaborations with artistic innovators from every creative discipline have yielded an unparalleled body of American dance, music, and visual art. Born in Centralia, Washington on April 16, 1919, Cunningham began his professional modern dance career at 20 with a six-year tenure as a soloist in the Martha Graham Dance Company. In 1944 he presented his first solo show and in 1953 formed the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as a forum to explore his groundbreaking ideas. Over the course of his career, Cunningham choreographed more than 150 dances and over 800 Events. Dancers who trained with Cunningham and have gone on to form their own companies include Paul Taylor, Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Karole Armitage, Foofwa d'Immobilité, and Jonah Bokaer. Cunningham's lifelong passion for exploration and innovation made him a leader in applying new technologies to the arts. He began investigating dance on film in the 1970s, and choreographed using the computer program DanceForms during the latter part of his career. He explored motion capture technology to create décor for BIPED (1999), and his interest in new media led to the creation of the web series Mondays with Merce. An active choreographer and mentor to the arts world until his death at the age of 90, Cunningham earned some of the highest honors bestowed in the arts. Among his many awards are the National Medal of Arts (1990) and the MacArthur Fellowship (1985). He also received the Jacob's Pillow Dance Award in 2009, Japan's Praemium Imperiale in 2005, the British Laurence Olivier Award in 1985, and was named Officier of the Legion d'Honneur in France in 2004. Cunningham's life and artistic vision have been the subject of four books and three major exhibitions, and his works have been presented by groups including the Ballet of the Paris Opéra, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, White Oak Dance Project, and London's Rambert Dance Company. Cunningham passed away in his New York City home on July 26, 2009. Always forward-thinking, Cunningham developed the precedent-setting Legacy Plan prior to his death to guide his Company and ensure the preservation of his artistic legacy.About The Music Center
The Music Center - Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County is one of the largest and most highly regarded performing arts centers in the United States. Every year, almost 2 million people visit its four main venues - Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, and Walt Disney Concert Hall - along with its vibrant collection of outdoor theatres, plazas, and gardens. The Music Center produces a variety of programming including Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center, Active Arts at the Music Center, and The Blue Ribbon Presents Global Pop, along with programming for children and families throughout the year. The Center also provides extensive services and leadership in support of K-12 arts education, and offers tours of all four venues. The Music Center is home to four internationally acclaimed resident companies: Los Angeles Philharmonic, Center Theatre Group, LA Opera and Los Angeles Master Chorale.
Upcoming Engagements
2009-2010 season of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Glenn Edgerton, Artistic Director
April 9-11, 2010
Ahmanson Theatre
Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Merce Cunningham, Choreographer and Artistic Director
World Premiere of the revival of Roaratorio
June 4-6, 2010
Walt Disney Concert Hall
American Ballet Theatre
Kevin McKenzie, Artistic Director
"The Sleeping Beauty"
July 15 -18, 2010
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
Videos